


Hot Fun in the Summertime

by ghostweedcat



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, M/M, Slow Build, idk what to tag?, shrugs into the abyss, this is my first time writing a fic so rip me
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-30
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-27 14:55:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 21,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7623055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghostweedcat/pseuds/ghostweedcat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lance returns to his family's farmhouse for the summer after his freshman year of college. He visits his next door neighbor Shiro, only to find that he isn't working on the land alone anymore and boy howdy is Lance not happy about it. Though he may be unreasonably attracted to the reserved, mullet-haired helper that had no right to make Lance a blushing mess as much as he did. Not that Lance would ever admit any of that... Right?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Well then!

**Author's Note:**

> I wanna give a huge shout out and major thank you to @joann121d on tumblr for reading and help edit my chapters! I wouldn't have been able to make this story without their help and I really appreciate it and wanted to make sure they got the credit they deserve!

“It’s pretty ironic that you’re afraid of chickens, isn’t it?” Lance’s bemused tone mocked his friend over the phone. He was currently sitting on the side of a road at a small gas station in the middle of butt fuck nowhere pumping his car for the next two hour trip ahead of him. Lance would have checked the time to see how behind schedule he already was but his phone was already pressed to the side of his face and digital watches made for wrists aren’t even a real thing anymore (plus he’s too broke to be that douchebag with an iwatch).

“Oh hardy har har. Laugh it up, Lance, at least I’m not the one with a weird-”  
“Woah woah! I thought we agreed to never bring that up again. We did a secret handshake pinky swear and everything, Pidge. How could you betray my trust like that.”

A sigh resonates across the call. “Whatever. Anyways, make it to your family's farmhouse yet?” Despite hours of begging and kissing ass up to his roommate, they had refused to come along with him to visit his family for the summer. It proved to no avail as Pidge declined his offer over and over and reminded Lance as to why. Pidge’s older brother was finally coming home from studying abroad in Europe, hence why Pidge decided to study in a university close to home.

“Aaah, no not yet. Trust me you’ll know when I’m home and my phone is being stolen every five minutes by one my my siblings and calls you making kissing noises.” There was a slight chuckle on the other side of the line. “I only have a few more hours of driving to do. You never know though, west Texas is an enigma I’m pretty sure.” A soft thud noise caught Lance’s attention. “Ah shit- There’s the gas pump. I gotta go, Pidge. I’ll text you all the sweet chicken coop details to fuel your feather filled nightmares.” He hears a groan.

“Please don’t-” “‘Kay love you bye!” Lance ends the call on a sing song note and shoves the hot piece of metal in his back pocket. After removing the pump and paying the cashier inside Lance let out a long sigh as he wiped the sweat off his brow. Climbing inside of his car and shutting the door he is reminded why he didn’t mind having leather seats all year while at his university and also reminded why he never owned leather seated cars while still living in Texas. It was hot. Not just ‘Oh no, I’m working up a sweat! Sure hope I can get some AC on soon!’ but more like ‘I’m a walking talking burnt bacon crisp and I will now lay down on the black concrete ground to achieve the full cycle of burning up completely’ kind of hot. You would think growing up in it would make it easier to handle but it never gets easier. 

Somehow along the way to see his family, however, Lance appreciates it. The long road trip vibe and even better: the ‘finally home’ vibe. The treacherous drive across huge spans of nowhere places with nothing but desert and forest and then only a half hour of city before trailing into more open areas. There was something very comforting and lovely to sitting in a car going 70 mph with the windows rolled down and an essentials Beyonce playlist blasting, just barely loud enough to be heard over the hot wind blasting through the car, and best of all nothing but desert on all sides with only some tumbleweeds and cacti flashing by and the occasional plateau in the distance. The little towns on the side of winding highways and once Lance had finally hit Texas it was so much better to be home already.

He was humming along to ‘Blow’ when it finally came into view. ‘It’ being the small little white shack of a house he had spent 18 years living and growing up in. Lance couldn’t help the familiar smile crawling on his face and making itself at home there since he couldn’t make it go no matter how hard he tried. The area was pretty flat and arid besides the clusters of trees that seemed to make a border between each of the neighbors small farms and the small growth of trees that surrounded the middle of the area and had a hidden early 19th Century cemetery inside of it. He pulled up to the automated fence gate and stepped out of the car feeling sunset pour over him and warm his shoulders and cheeks. He input the code to open the gate and he immediately heard barks start creeping in from the distance. “Oh boy…” he muttered and watched as a black and white dog the size of a stack of hay came racing from the back side of the house. “Hey girl!”

He didn’t have to call out to her to make her run any faster than she already was. The border collie had finally covered the distance separating them on the gravel road leading to the house and she came sliding to a halt before barking more and jumping all over Lance’s jeans. “Calm down, Pickles, I’ve been gone for like 6 months.” He patted the white on her forehead and leaned down to give her a kiss. “Oh, ew, when is that last time they washed you?” He only got a small stifled bark in reply. “Well no worries girl. Lance is back in town and still an expert dog washer.” Pickles began wagging her tail at that.

“Okay dill pickle, I gotta park the car up front now so make sure to stay off the gravel.” He makes a pointing motion for the dog and she gives a complying bark before trotting off. Lance stepped back into the heat and sweat filled car and pulled up around to the front side of the little white house and took note of the other two cars parked (This did not include the countless other cars out in the field or on the side of the house that were all broken down and still not being fixed by his self proclaimed mechanic of an uncle.) 

He could hear the screen door opening and closing shut accompanied by shuffling of small feet running up to Lance as he stepped out of his car again and began searching in the back seat for bags he needed. “Laaaaaaaance!” 

Lance suddenly felt a heavy weight gripping at his legs and then another weight latch onto his back side and finally more barking and yelling then he had been used for the past six months. God, did it feel good to be home. “Holy guacamole… Is that you, Brady? And Carolyn? Look at how big you’ve both grown!” 

Below him is a smaller barely four foot boy with a mop of short brown hair and tanned skin just like Lance who stared up at him with big round brown eyes and a toothy grin. Next to him was a slightly shorter young girl with lighter skin but the same brown hair and beautiful eyes as her brother and freckles dappling her skin. “Lance! Lance! You won’t believe how much has happened since you left!” 

Kneeling down to their level Lance smirked at both of them. “Is that right? And what exactly have I missed?” Both of the children beamed at him, completely ready to spill that past half year of sibling rivalry antics and funny mom freak out stories and school achievements. Best of all, Lance could not wait to hear all of it. He could hear both of them breathe in as far as they could with their small lungs before belting out all they had to say. That is until-

“Brady! Carolyn! Leave your brother alone he just made it home!”

Lance looked up from his adoring siblings to see a view he sorely missed more than he should have. Standing at the open screen door was his mother all poised and perfect with her hair pulled back tight in a bun with curls falling out and an apron wrapping around her figure and a deadly wooden spoon in hand. Good ol’ mama.

“Mama!” He stood up and moseyed over to her and immediately felt love rush into his system when she pulled him into one of her bear hugs. Not the normal ones either, the ones she saved up for truly special occasions to remind you that here you are with your one mother who loves you endlessly. Once she pulled away she gave him a peck on the cheek and patted his shoulder. “My my, look at you Lance. My little hijito is all grown up. Apparently not grown enough to come slinking back home to his mother’s arms though, huh?” 

“Ma.” He groaned at her. She let out a giggle and patted him again and then gestured her hand at him to come inside. “Come in, hijo. Dinner's almost ready.” Brady and Carolyn both ran past Lance’s feet fighting to get into the house first, following after their mother. “And you two, stop fighting!” she muttered with a huff and lightly whacked the spoon in their direction.

Lance picked up his bags and began walking in and stopped once the door had closed.

You know those moments in life that you just want to soak up in a bottle and cap it and then relish it once a day a little bit for the rest of your life? This was one of those moments for Lance. He stood staring at the same familiar living room he had always gotten in trouble in, where he knocked out Maddy’s two front teeth right before first grade yearbook pictures and where he would sit on the floor watching awful telenovela’s with his mother and soccer games with his father before bed and still shush his siblings when they got too loud because, although he’d never admit it, he loved the shows they watched. The smell of the house spread all across him and the warmth of the house settled well with him. The background noise of the TV on in the room and the distant giggling of his younger siblings and sizzles coming from the kitchen where his mother went back to cooking. Yeah, he missed this. 

He shuffled with his luggage into the doorframe of the kitchen to see his mother over the stove top. “Mama, where do you want me staying? Dallas and mines old room?” He could see her nod. “We’re saving the guest room for Madeleine and her friend to stay in when they come down next week.” Lance gave a questioning look at his mother’s back. “Maddy? Bringing a friend?”

“Be nice to your sister Lance. Besides it wouldn’t hurt for you to bring someone over for once besides Hunk. You know I always tell you the more the merrier.” Lance scoffed. “Mama, I can definitely bring over other people besides Hunk and I tried to, mind you, they just happened to have other plans instead.” He only heard his mother hum in reply before he turned around made his way through the living room and down the hall to find his old bedroom. As soon as he opened the door he couldn’t help but laugh at himself a little bit. It was obvious that Brady had moved into the room in his absence but he hadn’t done much to change the room. All of Dallas and Lance’s old posters hung on the wall including power rangers and TMNT with a beat up desk and small bookcase next to it. Two small twin size beds sat opposite of each other in the room and the middle had a small carpet mat with textile patterns on it that his abuelita had made before he was born. He loved this room and all that it had to offer him, although a little more privacy would have been nice.

“I still think it’s unfair I don’t get my own new sheets.” Lance spun around to see Brady waltz in and jump on the bed closest to the window that had old Harry Potter sheets on them. Lance quirked a brow at him. “Mama still hasn’t gotten new sheets for these beds? Yeesh. Tell you what, first thing tomorrow you and me are headin’ to town and buying new sheets for you.” At the new plans given to him, Brady instantly broke out into a lovable smile and gawked at Lance. “Really?!” Lance gave a solemn nod to the younger boy.

“You’ll take me too right?” The quiet voice caught Lance off guard and looked over to see Carolyn peeking into the doorway shyly. Lance sighed with a smile. “Of course you can, I can buy new sheets for you too.”

Before the conversation could continue all three of them heard their mother call them for dinner. Brady jumped from the bed and ran out the doorway following Carolyn. All Lance could hear was Carolyn giggle something along the lines of, ‘Yes! No more Barbie sheets!’ before setting his bags down beside the bed and heading to the kitchen himself. When he walked in he saw a new figure sitting at the table. “Lance, your uncle Lucas is here.”

The tall broad man stood up to greet Brady and Carolyn both jumping with excitement near him. “Alright, alright settle down.” He scooped both of them up in his arms and walked over to Lance. Lucas smiled as he approached him, his laugh lines and crows feet showing in the most endearing way possible. “Ah, Lance. Long time no see. You’re almost taller than me now!”

Lance gave a cocky laugh at that. “Wanna whip out the measuring tape and see?” Lucas’ hearty laugh filled the room. “We can save that for a later date.” Lance gave the best mock offended look he could muster at his uncle before his face failed him. “I see you’re still adding to the pile of cars you maybe might never ever fix. Don’t tell me I’m wrong.” 

Lucas pointed at him as best as he could with an armful of two children. “Hey. You watch and see. One of these days I’m gonna get one of those beauties up and runnin’ and then let’s see who’s laughing.” Lucas set down Brady and Carolyn in reply to their upcoming mini fight. “But really Lance, it’s great to see you! How have you been? Livin’ up that college life, huh?”

Lance nervously wrung his hands together. “Oh well, you know me, always causing some type of trouble somewhere and stringing along all the ladies-” “Lance.” “Sorry, mama.” Lucas chuckled a little bit. “Well, great to see you back.” Lucas glanced over at his sister. “Where is Carlos at, Sofia?” 

Sofia looked over her shoulder as she prepared plates for the table. “Oh, he just went out to get more feed for the animals out in the coop and barn. He said he would be back soon but knowing how him and Bill act they’re sitting down and having a beer together.” Lucas rolled his eyes. “Sounds like Carlos.” 

As they continued their normal family banter before dinner was actually ready to be served Lance’s mother let out a loud gasp before whispering, “Ay dios mio,” she craned to look over at Lance, “I completely forgot! Can you take this over to Shiro next door? I know you haven’t seen him even longer than the rest of us so I think it’d be best if you took it over.” She walked over and reached into the freezer to pull out a pan of some cooked dinner she saved up. “Shiro did us a favor about a week ago and I promised to pay him back with a nice home cooked meal. I know he isn’t feeding himself right over there.” Lance groaned.

“Mama, you think everyone doesn’t feed themselves right unless they’re eating a five person meal by themselves. Besides, I just got home after a day and a half drive!” She gave him a glare and a strong pointed finger that she poked into his chest before shoving the cold platter in his hands. “So it won’t kill you to drive two minutes next door and hand over a gift to a nice neighbor.”

Lance knew there was no arguing with his mother at this point. “Fine, but I am not happy about this!” He yelled back to her as he walked out of the kitchen and on his way to his car outside. Once he stepped out of the door he saw the beautiful oranges and reds painted on the sky hanging over the hills and treetops in the distance. He swiftly landed into the front seat of his car and slammed the car door. The drive over was a pleasant one as Lance got to take in the scenery. As he crossed a bridge over a small stream he looked over at the trees and saw the big fluffy pink blossoms hanging off leaves and branches. Lanced always loved the summer season because the nature just always seemed to be teeming with life and energy. It reminded him of his family and their dynamics and how much he had missed them and was still missing them. Man, he wished Pidge could have come along to see this.

Completely distracted by the blooming flowers, Lance almost missed the turn onto Shiro’s driveway. Now Shiro had only moved into the area a few years ago and has mainly kept to himself but that did not stop Lance’s family from trying to go out of their way to be hospitable and inviting to him. After all, you didn’t last long out in the country by yourself. It was a community effort. When Lance first met Shiro after he first moved in his initial thought was ‘wow’. The man was amazing and almost god damned perfect. He had beautiful eyes (was that eyeliner?!) and undercut hair with a scar that somehow just made him that much more mysterious to Lance. Madeleine had an immediate crush and Lance couldn’t blame her. Over time Lance learned that Shiro used to serve in the military and now wanted to settle down and live his life quietly. He also has a prosthetic arm which just automatically put him in the top ten list of ‘Coolest People Lance Has Ever Met’. During his senior year of high school Lance would ride over to Shiro’s farm weekly on his bike and help him out with chores on his farm. They became pretty close friends (at least in Lance’s opinion) and Shiro was sad to see him go for college but also immensely proud of him.

Now, Lance hadn’t seen Shiro in well over a year. Not since last summer before he left for college and it’s not he didn’t want to see Shiro! He just was very tired and wanted a home cooked dinner and to sleep his road trip woes away but if he had to go see Shiro that was alright too. Pulling up to the old rickety two story house, Lance saw a figure working out in the field. He stepped out of the car and left the food in the seat while he walked out to meet Shiro.

“Hey! Shiro!” Lance gave a big smile and started waving his arms widely over the tall crops surrounding him. The figure stood up and turned around to look at Lance and-

Oh. That was definitely not Shiro.

“Who the fuck are you?”

Okay, poor choice of words. The man straightened his back up and wore a very confused face. Lance was at a loss of words by this point because man… He thought Shiro was beautiful, but this guy was on a whole other planet.

His skin was pale but obviously red from being sunburned and his body was lean and built. Long black hair was pulled up into a ponytail with lots of stray hairs falling in the back and stuck to his forehead and neck from sweat. His eyes were a dull blue that somehow managed to match the rest of how he looked entirely. “I’m… I’m sorry?”

Lance was pulled out his short circuit and moved closer to the mystery man. “Who the hell are you? Where is Shiro at?” Lance cocked his head to the side a bit and gave him a weird look. The other man looked at a loss of words as well.

“I’m uh.. I’m Keith? What are you doing here, why are you looking for Shiro-”  
“Uh-uh. No sir. I asked the questions first. Where is Shiro?”

Now the guy furrowed his dark brows at Lance with irritation instead of confusion by this point. “Excuse me? Listen, I don’t know who you think you are-”

“Lance?”

Both of the arguing men turned around to look at Shiro looking from the porch of his house out to the field. Lance immediately forgot all about mister McEdgey and Beautiful and half heartedly jogged up to the porch steps to meet Shiro. “Shiro! It’s so good to see you!”

Shiro walked up and greeted him with a light hug and chuckled. “It’s good to see you too Lance. I wasn’t expecting to see you, it’s been so long!” Lance played and tugged at the hem on his shirt with one hand thinking of what to say in reply. 

“Ah well, college is pretty busy and I didn’t have time to visit during winter break, ya know? I’m glad to finally get to see you though, man! It’s been way too long!” Lance and Shiro shared a silent moment of smiles before Lance gasped. “Oh man I almost forgot why I came over in the first place!” He quickly ran down the steps past the other confused man and leaned through the rolled down window on the passenger’s side of the car and pulled out the dish.

“My mom said you did her a favor a little while ago and she wanted to return the favor. I have no idea what’s in the dish because it’s hidden by tin foil but whatever it is, you gotta share, Shiro. You know my mama makes dishes ten times better when they’re for other people.”

Shiro laughed gently at Lance. “She really shouldn’t have gone out of her way, it was no big deal to offer a hand to her. After all, what are neighbors for?” Lance nudged Shiro with his elbow. “Oh no you don’t! We always pay back our debts like Lannisters. Which reminds me have you seen season 6 yet? Because if not we gotta binge watch it together like last time-”

“Ahemm.”

Shiro and Lance both look over at the very irate boy at the bottom of the stair case. “Oh,” Shiro mutters under his breath, “Lance, this is Keith! He’s an old friend of mine and starting recently he’ll be living and helping me out on the farm for a while! I think you’ll like him, he’s very nice.”

Lance looked at Shiro, then back at Keith. Now, Lance isn’t a particularly religious man (despite his mama and papa’s pained pleas to ‘please go to church Lance-’) and he certainly didn’t believe in fate. For some reason right then and there it felt like the planets were all aligning for Lance and he just wasn’t ready. He didn’t like this sudden unreasonably attractive, handsome, beautiful- stranger! He didn’t like how looking at him made Lance feel the same way as when he looked at a model on a Victoria’s Secret ad. That’s not normal. That’s not okay. He’s not ready.

So what’s his first instinct to do? Tear down whatever he can before there’s something to build off of. 

“Okay, Shiro, Like. No offense but-”  
“Lance-” Shiro warned.  
“This guy looks like-”  
“Oh god,” Shiro muttered.  
“A grade A asshole and I have no idea why you’re letting him stay here. I mean just look at him he looked like he just heard about the new MCR shit coming out and went into full scene emo phase mode from way back in 2007! I mean, what the fuck man?” Lance looked over at Shiro who now had his face in the palm of his hands and rubbing his temples. To be fair, Shiro has known Lance long enough to have seen this coming. Keith looked like he was phasing through emotions of being offended to becoming livid.

“What the hell did you just say about me? Shiro who the hell is this guy?!” Keith threw his hands up in a confused gesture between Lance and Shiro. Shiro just let out a very long sigh and looked up from his hands. “Calm down, Keith,” 

Shiro looked over at Lance with a look he knew too well and that was the ‘I’m disappointed that you would act this way’ certified dad look. Lance felt a pit fall into his stomach and realized that he was being impulsive and unreasonable again and god dammit why couldn’t he do anything right stupid- “Lance.”

Once again, Shiro was there to bring Lance out of his thoughts as he pulled him gently down the porch. “You should probably go home, I can tell you’re tired and need rest. Tell Sofia I’m really happy and I’ll return the dishes as soon as I can. Okay? Okay.” He opened Lance’s car door for him and gestured for him to get in.

Suddenly Lance felt very small. Very small and unimportant and a nuisance. “Okay.” He said it quietly and turned on his engine. “I’ll see you later, I guess?”

Shiro gave a small smile to him. “Come by anytime, Lance.” Shiro gave a look over at Keith that Lance couldn’t quite read but it was enough to send Keith inside the house. Shiro came closer to the car and leaned in to speak with Lance. “Listen…” He started off.

“I don’t know what that was just then but…” Shiro came short of words obviously trying to find the right ones to say. “It’s unusual for you to lash out. That wasn’t very like you. What happened to the boyish charm you usually show?” Shiro gave him a half hearted toothy grin, “Keith is a really nice guy and he’s here to get better and relax for a while. You guys would make great friends. I’m not expecting you to be best friends or anything but I think it would help him… And you too, I guess.”

Lance must have given him a very doubting look because Shiro decided to continue. “Lance, just give him a chance alright. I expect an apology too. Just don’t be scared to come by again, okay? I miss having you around and I always need an extra pair of hands around here.”

Lance looked away and started pouting like a toddler not getting exactly what he wanted. Dios, he wasn’t any better than Brady. Lance huffed out a sigh. “Alright. Okay. But I’m doing this for you, Shiro.”

Shiro immediately gave Lance one of those winner smiles, the kind a proud parent gives their children when they do something incredible on their own accord. “Great! Great. I’m glad. I’ll see you later Lance.” 

Shiro pulled away from the car and Lance began slowly backing up. He gave a quick goodbye wave and yelled out, “Hasta leugo!”

Oh boy what a summer this was going to be.


	2. Apology Pie

After he made it back from the fiasco of visiting Shiro, Lance took a moment to just sit in his car under the night sky. The sun had officially gone down and the stars had begun to make an appearance. Yet the sky was still illuminated in beautiful layers, emphasizing the last few moments of daylight. Lance sighed and leaned back to look at the roof of his car and think. 

Shiro was right, that wasn’t like him at all. Sure he could admit that sometimes he acted like a huge tool and all of his friends would just groan ‘Laaaance’ and move on from it but this was different. He was trying to be rude. Why? Because suddenly he thought a man was beyond just good looking and actually attractive? Why was he attracted to him? Maybe it was the long hair that threw him off. That had to be it. Yeah that’s it. It’s fine.

Lance groaned and stretched himself out a little before rubbing the tiredness out of his eyes and getting out of the shit show that is his car. Walking up to the screened door he could already hear more voices pouring from the kitchen. Once he had rounded the corner of the doorway to face the kitchen table he saw a view that could wash away all his worries at the end of a day. He saw his family, now including his father and aunt, eating and smiling, enjoying each other’s company. 

“Ay hijito! Como te he extrañado.“

His father pulled out from his seat and came up to Lance and pulled him into a calming hug, the kind with a warm hand rubbing your back and the other person mumbling some welcoming words to you quickly before pulling away. Lance looked at his father with a small smile. “It’s good to see you too, papa.”

“Mi hijo!” His father had stepped away from the hug but still stood close enough to pat up and down Lance’s arms knowingly. “You’ve gotten so big in so small of a time! You’ve gotten more muscles than a beer belly-” “Carlos!” “Los siento, Sofia, I’m just impressed with our son.”

Lance got a good laugh out of his parents banter at the dinner table. Lance and his father went and took their seats at the dinner table and he nodded at his aunt. “Auntie Paula, it’s wonderful to see you again.” 

She gave a small smile and nodded back at him in between bites. “Hello, Lance. Back to cause more trouble again I see.”

“Oh, you know it.” Lance gave his signature smug smile. Half the table groaned. Lance’s mother leaned towards his direction with an expectant face. “So, Lance, how was Shiro?”

Lance smiled lightly at her. “Oh, he seems to be doing better than ever. He wanted me to tell you he’s really grateful for the food and that it’s not necessary, but you know I set him straight on that,” He pauses, “I also met his new helper, Keith.”

His mother gives a solid ‘O’ expression with her mouth. “Aaaah, so that’s who I’ve been seeing out there in the fields recently! I knew it couldn’t have been Shiro. Much too skinny, I should have you send more food over there… Those poor boys must be starving.”

“Mama, you have poor starving boys sitting at your table.”  
“Yeah, mama!”

“Hush, Brady.” Sofia sighed and looked away as she ate more of her food. “Anyways, Carlos, Lance, Dallas called while you were both gone and said he’s heading home on Saturday and should be here by Sunday night.” Carlos gave a small ‘hmmmm’ and Lucas’s eyes perked up. “Oh really? Then we can put him to work with that mechanical engineering he’s been working on to good use.” 

“Speaking of putting people to work… Lance, a little birdy told me you’re taking Brady and Carolyn out to the town tomorrow.” His mother eyed him careful as she sipped her glass of water. Lance immediately snapped to look at Brady and Carolyn sitting together who both pointed at each other for the blame. He sighed.

“Yeah, I am. What else do you need while I’m out?” His mother gave a satisfied look as she got exactly what she wanted to hear. “Well, since you’ve been kind enough to ask.. I do need you to pick a few things up from the store and also to stop by The Yellow Lion.” 

Lance sat up more straight at hearing this. “Hunk’s family’s restaurant? Sounds like a trip to get free deserts, count me in!” She rolled her eyes at hearing this. “Yes but more importantly I just need you to pick up an order they’re making for me.” 

“What is it?” “Yeah what is it!” Brady and Carolyn chimed in. Sofia hushed them down then smiled devilishly at her children. “It’s a surprise!” Small giggles were shared across the table and dinner continued as it would normally have like it was any other day. What Lance meant earlier when he had said that seeing his family together at dinner could wash away his worries is that he knew he always had this to come back to. He always had a place he fit into with his family and they loved him relentlessly. He did the same for them. It didn’t matter if he had a crisis or if suddenly everything were to fall apart because he knew he would always have his family behind him. He’d always have these hot summer nights with the smell of freshly cooked food wafting around in the air and the sound of cicadas outside barely a whisper to the loud conversations and laughter being held at the table. He liked knowing he belonged and he liked knowing he was safe.

Once dinner had finished up everyone said their goodbyes to uncle Lucas and aunt Paula and wished them a safe drive home. Papa settled down in his rocker chair in the living room like he usually did and had Brady turn on the TV and switch through the channels for him while Carolyn sat absent mindedly on the floor rambling about whatever weird bugs she found out in the field today. Lance stayed behind in the kitchen to help clean up the table and dishes with his mother. After he was finished, he stopped to admire his job of not-so-neatly putting away the dishes. He could hear his mother scoff at his handy work behind him, but he knew that she wasn’t going to bother trying to fix it at this point. “Alright, mama. Thank you for dinner, I’m gonna hit the hay though and unpack before I forget.”

“Thank you for helping with cleaning up, I know how much you hate it with that god awful messy lifestyle you lead, hijito.” Lance gave her a pointed stare and she chuckled. She walked over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “It’s good to have you back, Lance. Good night, I love you!”

Lance smiled as he watched her leave the kitchen to join her husband and children in their religious TV after dinner watching ritual. He slinked past them and down the hall to his room before plopping down on his bed lazily and rolling over. Grabbing a pillow and propping his head on it he pulled out his phone to see if he had any missed texts or calls. 

“Oh shit..” he mumbled to himself when he remembered he completely forgot to update Pidge. Staring at his phone he only saw a couple of texts from Pidge and a few lengthy ones from Hunk giving him all the details on when he’d be back in town to help out at his family’s restaurant. He pulled up his contacts and put Pidge on dial and rolled on his side with the phone pressed to his ear as he heard the tone ring. Finally he heard a click and sound of shuffling.

“Hello? Lance?”  
“Pidge! My favorite roommate in the whole wide world! How goes holding down the fort?”

He could just feel Pidge rolling their eyes at him over the phone. “It’s going fine. Did you finally make it home okay? Knowing you, you’re broken down on the side of the road right now and I’m your last resort for help before you try hitch hiking with a random trucker for sexual favors.”

“Hey now- wait, really? No, no! Anyways, I made it home in one piece and god did I miss it Pidge. I wish you could be here to experience the full McClain family love. It’s incredible and I’m glad to be back.” He sighed happily into the phone. “Any word from Matt?”

“He called me earlier and told me his flight in France has been delayed so he probably won’t be able to make it back as soon as he wanted too but nothing too bad. I’m just glad that he’s going to finally be back home.” 

Lance frowned a little. “Sorry to hear that, Pidge. I know how much you wanna see him sooner rather than later.”

“Eeh, could be worse it’s no big deal. Really, Lance. So tell me, what all am I missing out on over there?”

Lance’s smile crept back onto his face in no time flat. “Well, first of all, you’re missing out on some of the best homemade meals in the whole wide world and oh! The most loving warm hugs you could ever receive from another person. Like, Pidge. Nothing beats it at all. Brady and Carolyn have both gotten so much bigger it’s crazy! I’m so proud of them Pidge you should see how beautiful and handsome they both are I’m going to send you pics because you’ll love them. Oh my god, I met Shiro again too! You remember me telling you about him too, right?”

Pidge groaned. “How could I forget you telling me about the most handsome prosthetic limbed farmer man in the world. You got to see him again? Hasn’t it been like… Over a year?”

“Okay, first of all, Pidge, I’ll have you know that I’m the most handsome farmer man in the world-”  
“Yeah but not the most handsome prosthetic limbed farmer man-”  
“And secondly, just because it’s been over a year since I’ve seen him doesn’t make it weird. Except it was. Kind of.” Pidge snorted.

“What have you done now, Lance?” He had to sit up in his bed for this conversation and he could already feel his leg begin to bounce anxiously. “I didn’t do anything and screw you for assuming, Pidge. That ain’t right.”

“Except that I am right.” That was a statement. Not a question. He couldn’t help but sigh.

“Dammit, I hate it when you’re right.” He heard a satisfied hmm across the line.

“Alright so here is what happened, okay? My mama calls the family to the dinner table and we’re all getting ready to eat and she stops me and says,” He puts on his high pitched mama impression, “ ‘Oh Lance! Could you please pretty please take this nice tray of food over to our sweet dear next door neighbor, Shiro? It would mean the world to me as you are my favorite son and all!’” He clears his throat, “And so of course who am I to refuse such a nice request and for my mother and Shiro no less, right? So I take the tray, get in the car, drive over and admire the long lost view and I pull in and I see Shiro out in the field doing some work and I’m like okay! Cool! There’s Shiro.” Lance has to take a quick breather and Pidge waits in calm anticipation.

“So I get out of the car and start walking over yelling his name and stuff and he looks over and guess what? It’s. Not. Shiro. It’s some random hot guy I’ve never seen before in my life. So I’m just kind of standing there like, what the fuck? So I ask him who he is and he gets confused and right before we continue our conversation, Shiro interrupts and I go over and we talk and I’m having a good conversation with Shiro before this hot asshole-”

“Hot asshole? Really, Lance?”  
“Shut up, Pidge. Do you wanna hear the story or not?”  
“Okay okay, please by all means continue.”

“Alright, so, Shiro and I stop our nice conversation to stop for this random guy and Shiro introduces me to him and I don’t know what happened, Pidge. I just kind of snapped because this guy was unreasonably attractive and randomly at Shiro’s farm and I had been driving literally all day and I was tired and hungry and sleepy and-”

Pidge made a very long and grinding sigh making Lance stop on his rambling nonsense. “Okay, so, let me get this straight.” Lance gave a small ‘uh-huh’.

“You got mad at this random guy who you’ve never met before and have no idea what he is even like as a person and for some reason find incredibly attractive working at Shiro’s farm and your first instinct was to go into full on asshole mode?” Lance went quiet for a little bit while in thought before replying. “Well, when you put it that way, Pidge…”

“But I’m exactly right, aren’t I?” Lance made a whining noise at the statement. “Pidge, come on man…”

“Lance, listen to me carefully. Whatever you do, please please please, do not turn this into one of your weird rivalry things like you did with you-know-who at school this semester.”  
“Hey! That guy was totally challenging me with his weird superiority attitude-”  
“He literally only told you that you needed to improve your studying habits and was offering to help you, Lance.”  
“Yeah and how dare he!”  
“Lance.”

Pidge’s tone was much less irritated and more bordering on concern now. It made Lance stop and think. Shiro had shown the same type of tone to him earlier and it really muddled with his mind. What was wrong with him? “Alright, Pidge, I get it. I won’t start my ‘weird rivalry asshole thing’.”

“Oh thank god, I can only do so much to keep you under control from a million miles away.” Lance rolled his eyes. “Whatever, you know you love me, Pidge.”

“I will never admit that to you.”  
“Uh-huh. You keep telling yourself that pal! One of these days you will be at my feet telling me how much you love me and want to dedicate your life to me.”  
“Ew. Never.”

Both of them laughed together over the phone and let out a content sigh at the same time. “Thanks for talkin’ to me, Pidge. Made me feel better.”

“Anytime, Lance. Alright but seriously, I’m like two hours ahead of you and I’m actually tired for once in my life and need good rest before Matt shows up. I don’t want to be a walking zombie when I see my brother.”

“Alright man I’ll let you go. Good night, Pidge. I love you and you’re the best roommate bestie in the whole wide world.”  
“You think anything with a slightly specific label is the best thing in the whole wide world.”  
“I have a very big heart.”

“Goodnight, Lance.” He heard a little bit more shuffling before the end beep rang in his ear. He rolled over onto his back and splayed his arms out, dropping his phone on the bed right beside him. He could feel the tiredness finally washing over his body and his muscles melting into the comfort of his own bed again. “Goodnight…” He mumbled to himself before slowly letting his eyelids close on themselves.

\---

“Laaaance!”

What? What do you want?

“Lance! Get up! You promised to take us out! Lance!”

His eyes flew open and shot to the side of his bed to see Brady and Carolyn both kneeling at his bedside, staring at him in anticipation. Lance gave a huff as he slowly rose into a sitting position and threw his legs to the side. “Alright alright… ‘M gettin’ up…” He mumbled to them.

As he cracked his back and popped some more extremely unnecessary body parts he could hear Brady give a small ‘ewww’ and Carolyn chip in her own ‘so cool!’. Yawning as he finally got up he stretched some more then pointed at his younger siblings. “Give me like, thirty minutes to get ready alright?”

Both of his siblings yelled out an ‘Ok!’ and ran out of the room as Lance leaned down to fish through his bag for morning routine supplies. He really should have unpacked all of his stuff like he planned last night but by now there wasn’t much merit in doing it. Lance went through his perfected schedule down to the dot until his mother basically kicked him out of the shower because he was ‘using up all the good hot water before everyone else!’ and she threatened to use la chancla. Lance was not about to fuck with that.

Immediately after getting completely dressed, both Brady and Carolyn were latching on to each of Lance’s legs and yelling in excitement for their mini trip. Lance made sure they all said proper goodbyes to their papa and mama since they might not seem them again until dinner time and headed out the door. There they were greeted by Pickles excitedly. “Oh, Lance! Can we bring Pickles with us? Pretty pretty please?”

“Guys we can’t bring Pickles with us-” He turned to look at them and saw all three of them giving Lance the puppy eyes and pouts so convincing that the academy called and asked for their children to star in the next huge hit film. “Alright, but Pickles stays in the back seat with y’all the whole time and does not leave the car without a leash on, got it?”

Both of them hollered with joy. “I’ll go grab the collar!” Brady called as he ran back inside real quick. Lance opened the back door for Carolyn and Pickles to crawl into and shut the door gently before making his way around to the front seat. He started the engine when he heard the screen door open and shut as Brady came running up to the car with a leash in hand. He turned around to look at the trio in the back of the car when they were all settled. “Here are the ground rules, alright? Numero uno: I’m the driver, I choose the music. No complaining. Numero Dos: Stay within my eyesight the whole time. I do not want a repeat of what happened last time I took y’all to Home Depot and we ended up with an amber alert on Carolyn. Finally, Numero tres: What I say goes and I say lets have fun!” 

Everyone gave a small cheer before Lance turned up the speakers in his car and turned on his party hard playlist instantly blasting some stereotypical Kanye West. The whole drive was a pleasant nightmare of singing badly to other songs that would come on like Bohemian Rhapsody and Lance constantly yelling over his siblings fighting and Pickles losing it in the back seat with them. Ah, yes. Sibling love.

The shift from empty plains and batches of forest to the small nearby town was almost instantaneous and impressive, really. One second you’re looking at a whole lot of nothing and then bam! Buildings everywhere, although they were those old timey type ones. The kind that you can tell have been there for two decades too long but made you feel cozy just looking at. As Lance pulled into a common grocery store parking lot he turned down his music and found a spot to park. “We gotta pick up a couple things from the food area for mom first then we can go look at cool bed sheets, alright?”

“Alright!”

They all piled out of the car, except for Pickles who gave a disappointed whine as Lance partially rolled down all the windows for her. “Sorry girl. You know I can’t take you inside here.” The whole trip inside the store was a ridiculous mess for the group of siblings. This included loud yelling that rewarded them with glares from other customers and Carolyn kept slipping in extra food into the cart when Lance looked away but Brady’s giggling always gave her away. After finally getting everything on mom’s ‘small’ list, they headed over to the home decor area of the store. “Go crazy my small affiliates.”

Brady almost immediately broke a light bulb and Lance hurriedly went and picked up Brady dragging him to the next aisle over. “Scratch that, go calmly please for the love of god.”

It took them around forty minutes for Brady to pick out the ‘cool tropical plant’ sheets and for Carolyn to find new Star Wars sheets. While paying for everything at the check out Lance and Brady argued over the sheet choices. “I’m just saying, Brady. Carolyn obviously has superior bed sheet tastes than you do.”

“Not true!”  
“Yes true.”  
“Not true!”  
“Can you guys please quiet down.”

The cashier was beyond done with their antics. Lance apologized and quickly hurried his siblings out of the store and to the car. When in view of Pickles she immediately perked up and began barking and running in circles in the back seat. “Next stop, The Yellow Lion!”

The Yellow Lion was a huge part of Lance’s childhood and even more so in his teen years. Since him and Hunk were practically attached at the hip since preschool he spent either a lot of time at The Yellow Lion or back at his own house. This place was basically a second home to him and also home to some of the most delicious dessert treats in town. Double win. He pulled around back and parked. “Alright, put the leash on Pickles. I’m sure Mrs. Garrett will have leftover bread to give to her.”

As they got out and approached the door, Lance moved forward and gently rapped on it hoping someone from the kitchen would hear. Sure enough, someone did and it swung open to reveal the much smaller and older woman who was Mrs. Garrett. “Oh my! Lance! Look at you so grown up and handsome!” 

She started grabbing and pinching at Lance’s cheeks like he was still in middle school and then gasped stopping herself. “You must be here to pick up your mother’s delivery, no?” He nodded.

“Yes ma’am. If you also have some spare bread to give to Pickles over here that would be great too.” Mrs. Garrett covered her mouth and let giggles escape her lips. “Of course, darling. Anything for sweet ol’ Pickles.”

There was a light bark from behind Lance as Mrs. Garrett closed the door to the back of the kitchen and ran off to gather the food for him. Once she had returned she held two sacks; one holding a box and the other a few small rolls of bread. “Oh! Thank you so much Mrs. Garrett.”

“It’s really no problem, Lance. Make sure to tell your mother hello for me, okay? Also Hunk will be here soon so make sure and come by again.” She turned around to close the door.

“Oh, actually wait!” 

“Hmm?” She looked at his with eyebrows raised in questioning. “Would you actually have a couple of pie slices to spare? I owe someone an apology.” She gave a knowing smile.

“Still trying to woo all the woman, Lance?” He could feel his cheeks heat up. “W-what? No! Well- I mean yes but no this isn’t for that it’s for an actual apology and-” He was stopped with laughter bubbling out of the older woman and his siblings behind him.

“No worries at all. I have some key lime pie leftovers I can spare you. Just promise me not to let them go to waste.” Lance stood up straight and gave a sharp nod. “I would never let one of your amazing creations go to waste, Mrs. Garrett.”

“Such a charmer you are. Give me just a moment.” She disappeared behind the door again and emerged once more with another bag with a box in it as well. He took it from her hands gently. “I can’t thank you enough for this, Mrs. Garrett.”

“You can thank me by showing up more often.” She winked at him making him redden again. “I miss you and Hunk both so much. You’re like a second son to me, don’t forget. Drive safely, okay?”

“Will do, ma’am!” They waved and said their goodbyes. Walking away Lance handed the bread bag to Brady who was holding onto Pickles leash. While the trio crawled into the back seat, Lance made sure that the other bags were set carefully in the front passenger's seat before getting in the driver’s side and starting the car.

“Lance has a giiirlfriiiend.”  
“Shut up, Brady.”

\---

“Are we visiting uncle Shiro?” 

Lance had driven past his family’s gate and was headed for the next one instead. He gave a small nod and hum of approval to Carolyn’s question. They ended up spending most of the evening walking Pickles around the downtown area and window shopping. Now it was late evening and he figured they had time to spare so hey, why not?

“Yeah! Uncle Shiro’s house here we come!” Brady and Carolyn high fived in the back seat and Pickles lay down all tuckered out from their long walk. Pulling up to the house Lance could already see both Shiro and Keith out in the field. They were now standing up straight and looking over at the car coming into view. Brady, Carolyn and Pickles practically burst out of the backseat as soon as Lance put the car to a stop. They all immediately ran up to Shiro who was approaching the car, yelling ‘uncle’.

Lance was pulling the key lime pie box out of the car when Shiro had made it close enough to converse with. “As per request, I bring apology pie. Made by Mrs. Garrett, no less!”

Shiro raised an eyebrow at him smirking. “Look at you being the better man for once.” He turned around and waved at Keith who stayed put at his spot in the fields. “Keith! Come join us!”

At Shiro’s beckon Keith tiredly made his way over. As soon as he caught sight on Lance, his face adorably scrunched up. ‘Adorably? Stop it, Lance.’ He waved weakly as he walked up and Keith whispered something to Shiro before getting a ‘be nice’ dad glare from him. Carolyn and Brady both stared at Keith in confusion before looking up at Shiro. “Uncle Shiro, who’s this?”

“This is Keith. He’ll be helping me out on the farm now so be nice to him.”  
“Hello Keith!”  
“..Hi.”

Shiro chuckled at Brady’s enthusiasm and Carolyn’s shyness before motioning for everyone to head inside. “Come on, let’s go enjoy some of Mrs. Garrett’s famous pie.” 

Walking up, Shiro opened the door and Lance grabbed hold of it. When Keith walked up he hesitated before walking in. Lance smirked. “Please, ladies first.” He motioned his free hand towards the door. Keith just scoffed loudly and rolled his eyes but still muttered a quick ‘thank you’ to Lance as he walked in.

Lance had completely forgotten how nice the interior of Shiro’s old wooden two story house was. It had pleasantly chipped white and beige paint decorating the walls. Every here and there was frames with presumably old military pictures of Shiro and his buddies or pictures of him getting awards. It was actually really impressive but Lance had a hard time ever complimenting him for it. Shiro’s choice of home decor however was… A bit on the odd side. It was as if he walked into an Ikea and couldn’t decide what theme to go with. Not a single piece of furniture matched each other in any way but no one ever bothered to bring it up. It was okay though, it gave it that Shiro charm to the house. 

Brady and Carolyn could already be heard giggling in the kitchen with Shiro, Pickles only a few paces behind. Lance followed behind Keith to the kitchen to find both of them already scrambling to have a seat next to Shiro at the table. He couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he set down the box of leftover pie on the table and walked over to get plates and silverware out of the cupboards. Shiro got up to help him.

“Woah woah. Slow down winter soldier, I’ve got this. This is a moment to relax man. I bet you two have been out in the field all morning.” Shiro stared for a moment before sitting back down while smiling fondly. “And you say I’m like a dad, this must make you like a mom.”

“Shiro. Don’t make this weird.”  
“Haha, sorry.”

Lance set down plates on the tablet and passed them out with the silverware then headed over to the box. Using an extra knife to pass out slices, he went around the table until he got to his plate and realized there wasn’t any left. “Ah, shit..” He muttered.

There was two collective gasps at the table from Brady and Carolyn. “Language!”

Lance groaned. “Don’t act like you haven’t heard that before, you two.” He went to throw away the pie box properly and Shiro gave him a weird look. “Are you not having any, Lance?”

 

“Huh? Oh no, there wasn’t any left. It’s alright. The pie was for all of you anyways.” He gave a small shrug at the group staring at him.

“Aww Lance! You can have a bite of mine if you want,” Carolyn offered. “But only a bite.” She finished off with a warning and a pointed stare at Lance. He got a good laugh out of that. “Hey!” She protested.

“Los siento, Carolyn. I’ll take you up on that offer.” Lance pulled out the seat in between Carolyn and Keith and sat down. He took her fork and got a bite from the pie and smiled down at Carolyn. He gave her a kiss on the top of her head with a small sideways hug. “Thank you, Carolyn. You’re sweeter than this pie could ever hope to be.”

“You’re welcome, Lance. Take that, Brady. He gave me a kiss on the head so he loves me more! One more point for me.” She posed victoriously and Brady gaped widely at her. “Uh-uh! No way, Lance loves me more! Right, Lance!”

“Actually, I love Pickles more than the two of you combined.” Both kids frowned at the statement and everyone heard a jingle of tags on the ground as Pickles came up beside Lance’s chair. He patted her head gently. “Ain’t that right, girl?”

“Alright alright, you three are almost as bad as Dallas and Maddy are.” Lance gasped at Shiro’s statement. “Shiro, how dare you compare us to those barbarians.” He placed a hand on his chest and wiped away a fake tear with the other. This got a group of laughters from the table and conversation carried on. Except there was one participant missing.

“Are you normally this quiet?” Keith looked over with a slight jump at Lance’s words and pulled his fork away from his face with a questioning look. “Yes..?”

“That’s not a very confident answer my friend.” Keith became even more confused looking. “Do you like the pie at least?” Lance pointed at his plate of pie that was already more than halfway gone. Keith looked from the plate to Lance a number of times before finding the words to answer. 

“Yeah it’s uh… Really good. Where did you get this? Or rather.. Why did you get this?” Lance stared at the cupboards feeling himself get a little bit hotter and refused to look away from them. It was the middle of the summer, did Shiro not have AC going? “I got it from The Yellow Lion or more specifically Mrs. Garrett a.k.a. best pie maker in all of west Texas. I got the pie because uh…. Becaaause..”

Keith leaned his head forward a little bit staring at Lance with a cocked eyebrow. “Becaaaause?” He questioned.

“Becaaause it’s supposed to be an apology pie. For yesterday. What I did. Ya know. With the yelling and rudeness.” Lance finally peeled his eyes away from the dumb cupboards to look at Keith and his mind which was running at 100 thoughts per minute came to a screeching halt. No wait, screeching crash was a much better description. Keith was smiling at him. Actually, genuinely, smiling. It was quite possibly the most cutest thing he’d ever seen in his life and Lance has seen some pretty damn cute girls in his life. They all failed to compare to this. Keith tucked some hair behind his ear before leaning on the palm of his hand. “Well, apology accepted for sincerity. For the record though, you were a total douchebag yesterday so you still have a lot of making up to do.”

Oh god. Oh god. Ay dios mio- Fuck. Abort mission.

“Ah haha yeah well you know I’m.. Sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me.” Lance checked his wrist for the time. “Oh wow! Would you look at the time, dinner will probably be ready soon and you know how our mama can get when we aren’t home before dark ahaha.” He grabbed carefully at Brady and Carolyn.

“What? We’ve barely gotten to talk to uncle Shiro at all, Lance!”

“Well would you rather get in trouble or be able to watch the soccer game tonight, hmm?” Lance glared at both of them with a slight sense of panic. Brady sighed crossing his arms. “Alright…” He muttered before they all got up and started heading for the door. 

“You sure, Lance? I’m sure it’ll be fine with your mother if you all stay a little bit longer.” Shiro gave him a concerned look as they walked out onto the porch. “Oh nooo, I couldn’t possibly, Shiro. Besides I promised that I’d uh- I’d uhm. Help. With something. Top secret. You know, family stuff. All that.” He ushered the two kids and the dog into the back seat of the car. “Thanks for the offer though! Later, Shiro!” He paused. “And Keith.”

He jumped into the driver's seat of the car and got out of there as quickly as possible. Keith and Shiro both stood at the edge of the steps on the porch and watched as Lance drove off. Keith looked over with a completely perplexed expression.

“He wasn’t even wearing a wrist watch?”

Shiro just sighed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I already had the first and second chapter written up when I first posted so now there might be a delay on the third chapter as I'm still writing it. But oh boy am I excited. B^)


	3. Watch Out for Rabbits

As soon as he made it home he practically threw that bakery box at his mother and bolted to his room before slamming the door and whipping out his phone. He needed help asap. 

Lanceroni: pidge pidge  
Lanceroni: pidge answer me  
Lanceroni: u gotta  
Pidgeon: lance what is this about  
Lanceroni: okay so lets say hypothetically  
Pidgeon: lance no one says that and actually means a hypothetical situation  
Lanceroni: okay so lets say truly hypothetically  
Lanceroni: someone had the hots for a guy like he does with girls  
Lanceroni: and this guy knows hes straight for sure  
Lanceroni: what would that mean??  
Pidgeon: lance  
Lanceroni: pidge  
Pidgeon: are you telling that you… don’t like men?  
Lanceroni: what   
Pidgeon: you are telling me this, right?  
Lanceroni: pidge what are you trying to say  
Pidgeon: i thought that you were into guys…?  
Lanceroni: im calling you  
Pidgeon: jesus christ

“Pidge, what the hell do you mean?” Lance could feel himself getting slightly more frantic than he wanted to be at the moment. “Well… I mean I always kind of assumed that.. You know… You did like guys…?”

“Let me get this straight.”  
“Lance-”  
“You think I’m not?”

Pidge groaned. “That’s an overrated joke and yes, Lance, I thought you did like guys too.”

“Too?!”

“Yeah, like if you were pan or bi or something.”

“What could possibly make you think that I, Lance McClain, the most straight guy in the world, your roommate, who only dates and flirts with girls, could possibly be anything other than straight?” The end of the line went silent for a minute. “Lance, you went with me to every single Gay Straight Alliance meeting without me even having to invite you and then proceeded to compliment and flirt with every single member every time we went until they had to tell you to stop because it was making other members feel uncomfortable.”

 

Lance scoffed. “I only went because I thought you would feel awkward going to the meetings alone! And besides, it’s called Gay Straight Alliance not Only Gay People Alliance.”

“And the flirting?”

“You know that’s just my natural form of communication, Pidge.” Both of Lance’s knees were bobbing up and down at a fast pace as he stared out the window watching the sun begin to set. This wasn’t good, was this how he came across as to people? He didn’t know what to think right now, his brain had been completely scrambled by Pidge and Keith.

“Okay and remember that guy, what was his name? Anyways, that’s besides the point, you had that whole ‘sexual tension rivalry’ bullshit you made up and the guy was obviously asking you out by studying.”

Lance sputtered. “W-what? He was asking me out?” 

“That poor guy. Every time we ran into him and you stormed off he’d ask me how to properly get your attention. I never did find the right answer for him.”

Lance wanted to form words with his mouth but all that seemed to spill out was a failed string of noises. “Look, Lance, if you say you don’t like guys or anyone else at all then that’s that. No one can tell you what your sexuality or preferences are besides you. I only thought that you might not have been straight is because - get ready for some cheesy shit- everytime we went out or hung somewhere, you’d find the beauty in everyone? I remember when we visited that local cafe and you had a compliment to say to almost every single person you saw walk through the front door despite what gender they were. That’s the only real reason why I figured otherwise, Lance. Don’t stress out about it.” It was obvious that Pidge put major emphasis on their last statement and huh. Lance guessed that that actually did make some sort of sense to him in an odd way. Pidge continued their lecture. “This doesn’t mean anything unless you make it mean something. Maybe you’re just curious? Who knows, it will only matter if you want it to, Lance.”

“Yeah... You’re right once again, Pidge.” Lance felt a knot he didn’t realize was even there loosen. Now he felt kind of bad realizing that he’d just had a mini episode and freaked out on his friend and made the whole conversation about him. So he decided to change the subject. “So… Has Matt made it home yet?”

Pidge gasped lightly. “Yeah he did! I was about to head over to my parent’s house for dinner with him before you called. Oh my god, Lance, you’ll never believe the stories he has told me. You have to hear about this japanese foreign student in Germany who…”

\---

 

After his call with Pidge, Lance felt a lot more at ease with himself and decided not to focus on any of the stress he was going through. Who cares about sexuality? Not this guy, that’s for sure. Lance opted out on dinner and instead decided to stay in his room and listen to music and drown out his never ending rambling. He had completely forgotten to take his medication with him, which is pretty ironic for someone with ADHD to forget to take the medication that literally helps them remember and focus on things better. Luckily, his mother called the pharmacy in town and they’d have a prescription ready for pick up by tomorrow morning. 

Surprisingly enough, Lance was listening to a playlist of orchestra music and soundtracks. He fell in love with orchestra music during middle school when he was introduced to it more thoroughly from joining band. He played trombone and continued to play it all seven years of his public school education. After a couple months of learning and hearing pieces for examples in class, he slowly began to realize that the music was just a big puzzle of matching parts and pieces. Every section and instrument had it’s spot to fill in the music and added it’s own personal touch. It helped to easily distract and calm Lance down in times of need. He could listen to the same piece on repeat and listen to it ten times but each time he would focus on a different instrument and section and see what it had to offer in the collection of music flowing through him. 

After he had graduated he was disappointed to find out at the only music programs they offered were more exclusively for people majoring in music as the classes were extremely difficult and demanding. Not something to do for fun or in your extra time, that’s for sure. That didn’t stop him from whipping out his old trombone and pulling up solos to play in his downtime back at his dorm room. It used to drive Pidge insane for a while, but soon they warmed up to it and even pointed out things that Lance could improve on in his playing. ‘You should pull up on the slide a little bit more in that position, you sound a little flat whenever you play there.’ ‘Oh? Really? Huh, never noticed. Thanks’ Those were some of the highlights of their friendship.

Lance was in the middle of listening to the saxophone section in one piece when he heard a knock at the door and he snapped his head up from his laying position. “Yes?”

It was his mother peaking through the doorway. “Everything alright, mi hijito?” 

“Ah, si mama, sorry I’m just a little distracted right now.” Lance shifted his body to a sitting position on his bed to look at his mother. She gave him a gentle smile. “Alright. If you want any leftovers I saved some in the fridge for you. Me and your papa are heading to bed soon, goodnight, Lance. I love you.”

“I love you too, mama.” His mother gave a small wave before shutting the door quietly. He could hear her footsteps shuffling away from the door and begin to be replaced by smaller lighter foot steps. Brady bursted through the door laughing as he was chased by Carolyn in circles around the room. Lance watched in amusement until the siblings tired out and their giggles finally came to quiet panting. Both of them had ended up laying on the floor after their chase session and Brady rolled over to look up at Lance. “Lance, are we gonna be able to go visit uncle Shiro and Keith again soon?”

“Did you just call Keith uncle? Also, yeah sure but only if you promise to actually help out Shiro with his work. We can’t show up to bother him constantly without contributing guys.” Carolyn and Brady were beaming at him now. “Yes! We get to visit uncle Shiro and Keith again!” They began chanting their names and banging their fists on the floor in sync. 

“Guys! Stop, ma and pa are trying to sleep next door.” They freeze and pout at Lance. “As you two should be doing as well. It’s almost 10 pm don’t y’all have a curfew or somethin’?” Carolyn shakes her head indignantly with her nose raised up high. “Uh-uh, papa says that big kids don’t need a curfew.”

Lance raises an eyebrow and leans forward looking Carolyn in the eye. “Oh and you’re a big kid now, are you?” Carolyn scoffed in offense and sat up giving Lance the scariest glare he’d ever seen from a elementary schooler. “You’re just jealous that papa trusts us more now than he ever would for you even now.” 

Lance gets up from his bed and walks over to Carolyn. “Ha ha,” He began sarcastically, “Just wait until you’re old enough to catch the eyes of boys and then we’ll see who papa is letting stay out late freely.” Lance kneeled down offering to carry Carolyn and she complied sleepily, obviously tired from a full day of activities. Lance stood up with her in his arms and looked down at Brady. “Get to bed, Brady. I’ll be right back.”

As he walked down the hall he heard Carolyn’s breathing slow down and begin to drift into sleep but not before he heard her incoherently mumble, “Boys..? Who’d want to capture the eyes of boys… They’re gross..” 

Lance entered her room and laid his younger sister into bed and tucked her in before sighing. He kissed her forehead goodnight and left quietly to get back to his own room.

‘Yeah,’ Lance thought to himself. ‘I wonder the same things, Carolyn.’

\---

Why did Lance never learn?

Why did he never learn that there is no such thing as a peaceful morning in the McClain household?

Lance was currently being flattened by the weight of two siblings and a furry creature all while being covered in slobber and also having his mother lecturing him about sleeping in on such an important day. Lance casually pushed Pickles’ mouth away from being able to lick his face further into sogginess and looked questioningly at his mother. “Wait… Why is today important?”

That’s when he was met with an ever longer lecture but in fast paced spanish that he could barely hear over Pickles panting in his ear and his two siblings giggling on top of him. Why were they all sitting here like this anyways? Shouldn’t they be getting ready for Dallas to get home- 

“Ooooh okay that makes sense. Alright everybody, up and at ‘em.” Lance lightly shoved his siblings off his body followed by Pickles and they all tumbled to the floor. His mother finally finished up her lecture and Lance looked her way. “Do you want me to help with breakfast, mama?” 

She nodded and that’s how Lance ended up spending his morning trying his best not to get burnt hands or accidentally cut his fingers when absent mindedly cutting up veggies. While he knew that Hunk was the superior cook of everyone Lance knew, it was safe to assume that he was second best. He spent many mornings, evenings and afternoons helping cook with whoever it may be in the kitchen. With his mother they had perfect coordination in the steps it took to make a dish and with his father it always ended up a little messy and it never turned out perfect but they never failed to have a funny story to go with it afterwards. Anytime he cooked with his siblings it was chaos and nothing good ever came out of it. Now cooking with Hunk came in handy during his time in college since whenever they cooked together it was always to test what things could go together. The outcomes of their ridiculous ideas ended up being either his way of getting cheap efficient food supplies for him and Pidge or just his own version of drunk food when he got home from kegsters. Needless to say, cooking was just another odd form of communication for him.

“Lance, can you hand me the diced tomatoes?” 

“Sure thing.” He offered her the cutting board carefully. “Thank you!” She smiled widely at him and he returned one just the same to her. “Breakfast is about ready so go get the others.”

Lance walked into the small living room to see his father and siblings all on the floor with the TV on playing the morning news. Brady was captivated by whatever the news anchor woman was announcing while Carolyn and their father worked on some macaroni art together. “Breakfast is ready.”

At the table the main piece of conversation was Dallas with everyone sharing their own little stories they have with him. Carolyn was in the middle of bragging about when her and Dallas went into the farm’s cemetery alone at night together when the phone rang. Lance’s father got up to answer it and mumbled across the line. Once he hung up he looked over at Lance. “Your prescription is ready to be picked up now, Lance.”

“Aaah alright, lemme finish up my plate and I’ll head out a little bit after that.” His father nodded before taking his seat again and conversation continued on. Lance slipped some of his food to Pickles underneath the table sneakily and got up to get ready to head out. On his way out giving everyone a quick hug or kiss, Lance was met with hot humid air as he stepped outside. Texas was one of those places that everyday during the summer was hell but for one specific reason or another. It was humid or it was over 100 degrees or the mosquitoes were worse than usual and the weather always remained inconsistent. Lance wanted to say it was endearing, but it was more irritating than anything else. He hopped into his car already drenched in sweat and cursing under his breathe at his car that conveniently didn’t have any working AC. He rolled down the windows and began his trip to town. 

As he drove past the barbed wire fencing that belonged to Shiro’s property he eyed the fields carefully. After catching a glimpse of what looked like, at least in his opinion, to be Shiro he leaned out of his window slightly and honked his horn and waved. The figure looked over and sure enough, Lance was right this time around. Shiro waved back and eventually let his hand fall back to his side once Lance was far enough down the road. Lance giggled a little bit to himself while thinking about the odd farmer.

Outside of the neighborhood Lance felt his phone go off in his pocket and refused to risk looking at it while driving. He had a real strict policy about no texting and driving. Sometimes he got overzealous with his policies and would snatch up phones from the hands of Pidge who would be sitting in the passenger’s seat. Long story short, this never ended well for the both of them. Pulling into the pharmacy and parking, he whipped out his phone to check and see what was up. He had two missed calls from Hunk and a string of texts from him as well. Mostly spam to get his attention. Not wanting to look through all eighty messages from his friend, Lance called instead.

“Oh my god, Lance! I’m here. Right now. Back home.”

 

“You just told me the other day you weren’t going to be back for another four days?” 

“Well see that was the original plan but some stuff came up and you know who it goes- besides, who cares! You need to come over pronto and we need to make mac n cheeseburgers like old times.” 

“Oh hell yeah, count me the fuck in. I’m at the pharmacy right now but I can be there in like, thirty give or take.”

“The pharmacy? Wait- You forgot your medication.”

“Listen-”

All Lance could hear by this point was his friends deep rumbly laughter through the speaker. “Oh man, classic Lance move.” Lanced rolled his eyes as he stepped out of his car and locked the doors. “Yeah yeah, I’m hanging up now. Love ya, Hunk.”

“Love you too! Hahaha-”

He got in and out of the pharmacy as fast as he could (and god the same old lady still worked there?) and shoved the stapled bag into his glove compartment before heading over to The Yellow Lion. He pulled around back once again and before he could even knock on the back door, Hunk bursted through pulling Lance into a hug that lifted him off his feet. Lance wrapped his arms around Hunk in return and both couldn’t repress the laughter coming out of their throats.

“Lance! I missed you so much man!” 

“Hunk, we text literally every day.”

“But it’s not the same.”

 

“God, it really isn’t, is it?” There was more laughter before they started taking their conversation to the upstairs part of the building that held Hunk’s family’s home. They were conversing about facing the weather together again and walked into the kitchen when-

“Hunk?”

“Hm? What?”

“Who’s this chick?”

There at the island table in the middle of the kitchen sat a very tall and broad girl with a short and dark pixie cut. She looked over in surprise and set down the phone she had previously been staring at. “Oh! You’re back! And you must be Lance, right?” She stood up and walked over briskly to shake hands with him. He reluctantly took her hand into a firm shake (did this girl secretly have hulk powers because he’s pretty sure his hand is about to break-), “Riiight… And you are?”

“I completely forgot to mention it!” Hunk let a small chuckle out. “Lance, this is Shay, my friend from uni. She’s the reason we ended up showing early. I was going to stay with her a couple of weeks since she didn’t have any plans and was going to stay on campus for the summer but then I thought, hey, why not just invite her to join me with my family?” Lance stared at Hunk with a completely expressionless face.

People really needed to stop springing surprises on him like this.

\---

 

So, turns out, Shay was probably one of the coolest and sweetest people Lance had the opportunity to meet. She majored in environmental science and could make a mean mac n cheeseburger. Also, she kicked ass at mario kart. Anybody who could beat Hunk and himself collectively at mario kart immediately had major kudos from Lance. She also told Lance about how she got interested in environmental science when her hometown faced a drought as well as pollution in the air that lead to temporary evacuation. Ever since then she wanted to learn about the environment and how to help it. It was way better of a reason to major in something than Lance could even pretend to pull out of his ass over his major.

Shay and Hunk had met through her brother who roomed with Hunk and attended the same college as them. One night her brother invited her over to try some of Hunk’s campus famous dinners and the rest was history.

“Okay but like, how have you not told me about Shay at all until now?”

Hunk shrugged as he ate leftover mac n cheese. “I don’t know. Must have escaped my mind.” Shay nodded in agreement. “He can be very forgetful.”

“God, this is almost as bad as when my brother forget to tell everyone he had gotten engaged.”

“I remember that! Your mom was so mad, man. I thought she was going to drive all the way to his house in California and personally kill him, then bring him back to life to discuss wedding plans.” Lance sighed warmly at the memory. “Yeaah… Good times.”

Shay looked at both of them confused. “Your brother… Forgot to tell everyone that he had gotten engaged? How?” Now Hunk and Lance were shrugging in unison. “He can be very forgetful.” They spoke at the same time then looked at each other before bursting out in hysterics. Shay leaned over and punched both of them in the arm lightly. 

Lance felt his phone going off in his pocket and checked his text messages. His mother was telling him to head home soon since Dallas would be getting home any minute now. “Speaking of my brother…” He trailed off then looked up at both of them. “I gotta head out pretty quick. Dallas is gonna be gettin’ home any second now and I wanna be the first one to wrestle him to the ground over something petty.”

Hunk nodded with a ‘hmm’. “Sounds accurate. Lemme walk you out.” Lance got up and looked over at Shay. “It was nice to meet you, Shay. Any friend of Hunk’s is a friend of mine. Vice versa.” Shay smiled sweetly at him. “It was nice to meet you too, Lance! We should all hang out again sometime.”

“For sure! Lance basically lives here half the time anyways-”

“Hey!”

“So the three of us will be hanging out again real soon.”

Shay blinked and then nodded. “Well, alrighty then. Later, Lance!” Lance began moving for the staircase with Hunk trailing close behind. “Later!” He called back as he descended the steps. Hunk rushed both of them through the kitchen before any of his relatives or coworkers could stop them for a friendly ‘catch up’ chat. When they reached his car, Lance gave Hunk a suggestive glance. “So… Just a friend, huh?” 

“Ugh, Lance, no. Not now.”

“Aw, come on dude you can be honest with me. You’ve totally got the hots for her. Don’t deny it.”

“If you’re trying to see if I like her or not just so you can hit on her-”

“What the hell?! No!”

“Oh, really?” Lance gawked at him and put his hands on his hips. “Of course! Why would I wanna hit on your crush of a girl friend.”

Hunk was gradually growing redder by the second. He began softly wringing his hands together and stared at the ground. “Okay, so, maybe I do kinda sorta like her.”

“See, was that so hard?”

“But at least I can admit it unlike you and that ‘hot asshole’.”

Lance stared at him long and hard. There was silence for a calm minute. “I’m gonna kill Pidge.” He immediately pulled out his phone to call them right then and there. Hunk ripped the phone from his hands and stared down at him with a serious look. “Lance, I’m being serious right now. As your best friend since the day you puked in my childhood bully’s shoes in the first grade-”

“Ugh.”

“If you ever need to talk about something, just ask. You know I’m always here for you and that I will never stop wanting to be friends with you for any reason.”

Lance took his phone back from Hunk’s hands and started to get into his car. “Got it. Also, he’s not a ‘hot asshole’, he’s just a straight up ‘asshole’. So excuse you.” Lance stared at his hands gripping the steering wheel. “Also, thanks. I mean it.” He looked up to see Hunk smiling down at him with joy. “Anytime, Lance.” 

“I’ll catch you on the flipside, Hunk.”

He left the parking lot blasting Hall & Oates. Anything to distract his thoughts.

 

\---

 

Lance was cruising down the road admiring the countryside on the way to his house with 80’s music still humming through his car. He could feel sweat trickle down the sides of his face and his clothes stick to his body from the heat that was circulating through his car. He finally pulled on to his street and then noticed someone walking up ahead on the side of the road. ‘Who the hell would be walking out in this heat, especially during the hottest time of day?’ As he got closer he began to recognize that familiar frame and masculine curves and pretty hair and- Okay. Time to stop right there. It was still puzzling to him as to why the hell Keith, of all people, was randomly walking on the side of the road. He slowed down as he got closer and honked as he came up beside him, making Keith jump in the process. Keith scowled as soon as he saw who was driving the car.

“Yooo, what the hell are you doing?”

“If every time you’re going to come up to me is going to start with a rude question I swear to god-”

“Alright, alright. I apologize, but no pie this time. Where are you headed?”

Keith looked at him blankly. “Uhh… Your house, actually?” Lance leaned back in surprise. “What? Why?”

Keith held up a pan that Lance had failed to notice in Keith’s hands before. “The casserole your mom made, we had it for dinner last night. Shiro said I needed to meet your family anyways, so he sent me to return it.” Lance stared at him. “And so you decided to walk.”

“Yes.”

“In 100 degree heat with severe humidity. During the hottest time of day.”

“Yes…?”

“Get in the car.” Keith tilted his head slightly processing Lance’s words. “What-”

“Come on, get in, I’ll just drive you there. It’s better than that damned ten minute walk in between our houses.” Keith stood frozen looking at Lance. “Well?” Lance’s voice began to show irritation which must have snapped Keith out of it because he finally began to climb into the passenger’s seat of the car. “What the hell? Why do you have leather seats?”

“Because I hate myself now shut up and listen to Hall & Oates with me.” 

“Is that some type of oatmeal…?” 

“You’re going to kill me.”

The short drive to Lance’s house was uneventful besides Keith giving a loud ‘ooooh’ as Lance turned the music back up and explained to him that Hall & Oates was a musical duo. What was eventful, in Lance’s mind, was the image of Keith staring out the rolled down car window with drops of sweat decorating his brow and causing small strands of long black hair to stick and curl on his skin. The wind blowing in through the window and raking it’s way through the rest of the other boys hair and-

“Watch out!”

Lance’s eyes snapped back onto the road to see a jack rabbit sprinting across it and immediately swerved the car to try and avoid it. Both Keith and Lance felt a significant ‘bump!’ and Lance slammed on the brakes bringing the car to a halt. He frantically got out of the car and looked down the road to see the rabbit lying down in the road. “Ay dios mio. Oh no. Oh lord. Oohh shit. Did I kill it? I think I killed it. Holy shit I just killed a innocent rabbit, didn’t I?”

Keith was by his side before he could even realize it and put a hand gently on his shoulder. “Relax. It’s not the first time a rabbit is going to get run over. Besides it could have been worse, like a deer or something.”

“Very comforting.”

Keith ignored him. “What I’m more worried about is what the hell could have been so distracting you didn’t see the goddamn rabbit in the middle of the road!” Lance instantly froze up. ‘Shit.’

“Uhhhh… Well…”

“I’m listening.” Keith removed his hand from Lance’s shoulder and crossed his arms. Lance panicked. “You know what? I think we should go check on the rabbit. Do you think that’s a good idea? Because I do. Let’s go check on the rabbit, shall we?” 

Lance quickly paced over to the lifeless body and slowed down the closer he got. Okay, deciding to look at a dead rabbit body wasn’t very smart but it was ten times better than admitting he was distracted from his driving by admiring another boy’s features. “Aaaah, shit…” Lance sighed out as he got within touching distance of the rabbit. Keith was now standing behind him and watched as Lance kneeled by the rabbit. “R.I.P. this little buddy. I’ll name him Sven in loving memoryaaAAAH-” 

As if on cue, the rabbit sprang back up from the dead and sprinted off to the side of the road, disappearing into some shrubs. Lance had fallen onto the ground and now realized the reality of the situation. He had just ran over a rabbit because he was ogling some guy, then proceeded to panic over said guy and rabbit, got scared and screamed like a little girl and fell on his ass because of the rabbit, all in front of Keith. Lance slowly put his head in his hand in embarrassment and could feel his whole face heat up. Leaning back a little he peaked through his fingers at Keith who was stood completely still with a bewildered face before he snorted. ‘He fucking snorted-’

Now Keith was full on laughing his heart out. Turns out, Keith had the kind of laugh that pierced through the air and drowned out everything else. It was loud and obnoxious and he would gasp for breaths every few laughs. He was beginning to hunch over and everything about it was… Beautiful. Keith’s laughing made Lance want to laugh. So he did. It was a monumental moment that Lance was going to put a sticky note in between his memories like you did in a book when you found an inspiring quote.

“I can’t… B… Believe… You just… Screamed like a… Like a little girl….” Keith could barely get the words out of his mouth as he doubled over with laughter. Lance was still on the ground with his face hidden behind sweaty hands with a dying out laughter trailing from his throat. He sat up slowly and brought his hands down with a content sigh with his finished laughter. Keith looked like his was laughing but by this point nothing was coming out. 

“Come on, man. It couldn’t have been that funny.” Keith nodded frantically to show his disagreement. “Can we at least get back in the car and drop off the damn casserole pan?” Keith nodded again before leaning an arm on his knee and holding up a hand and breathing out, “Hold on… Give me.. A second..” 

Lance rolled his eyes and got up from the hot concrete that was searing through his jeans. On his walk over to the car, Keith followed slowly behind. As Keith finally settled into the seat next to Lance and began to wipe tears away from his eyes he looked over at him. “I can’t believe that happened. That has to be in at least the top ten of the funniest things that has ever happened to me.” Lance raised a brow.

“Only the top ten? Not even like, top five? Top three?”

“Don’t jinx yourself. I’m sure you’ll climb to the top in no time with the pace of random events you keep throwing at me. How did Shiro handle living with you for more than a month?”

“Shiro is a patient man and a blessing to all mankind.”

Keith shrugged. “Fair enough.”

Lance twisted the keys in his car and this time made a much harder effort to be focused on the road. It was less than a five minute drive, how the hell could it have been so difficult to do in the first place? They passed a line of trees that divided Shiro’s land from the McClain’s land which could have been obvious without the trees in the first place. Shiro’s land was well kept with green grass and long fields of crops growing while the McClain’s land was not. It was a lot more barren but with hay bales scattered widely across the fields. “Does your family not do any farming?”

Lance glanced over at Keith in confusion before realizing what he was asking about. “Huh? Oh no, we raise and sell cows as a side thing for extra money. We do have a mini garden beside the house but we end up using most of that for extra cooking ingredients, if anything.” Keith nodded lightly as they pulled into the driveway. “I’ve never really paid attention to this place before. Every time I passed by I didn’t really think about it, plus I spend pretty much all of my time on Shiro’s farm day in and day out.” Lance hissed.

“Sounds rough, buddy.”

“Not really. I find farming to be very relaxing in it’s own laborious way.”

“Come back to me and say that again when you farm for a living for years.” Lance was rewarded with an irritated glare. He shrugged. “I’m just saying! My dad used to do it and man did it do a number to his physical health. Plus he has, like, permanent farmer's tan. No joke. It’s hideous.” Keith chuckled as they parked up front. Pickles was laying on the front porch, now with her ears perked up. Lance reached over and dropped down the glove compartment to pull out his medication. “What is that for? One of your little siblings isn’t sick, are they?”

“What? No, it’s uh… My medication. For ADHD.”

Keith looked at him very puzzled for a second before making a distinct ‘o’ shape with his mouth.

“That explains how you managed to hit that rabbit earlier. It also explains a lot in general.”

“Haha. Yeah right. Total sense. Listen, if you’re going to be weird about this-”

“Oh no! It’s totally fine, Shiro takes anxiety medication so I understand.”

Lance was slightly taken aback. He knew Shiro took medication for non physical illnesses as well but he didn’t know if other people did and quite frankly it wasn’t his place to share it. He was a little shocked because well… He usually had to explain these type of things to people. He didn’t like hiding it because it was a part of who he was and also important to know if someone wanted to understand why he did things the way he did. People weren’t ever rude or mad about it but sometimes they couldn’t wrap their head around the idea. So here was Keith, a stranger he’s known for a total of three days saying ‘oh it’s fine I got you’. 

“Uh.. Thanks then, I guess.” 

They both heard the front door open and shut, making them both whip their heads around. A tall man with Lance’s stature was walking out with slightly longer and shaggier hair as well as sporting a modern five o'clock shadow. “Motherfucker…” Lance whispered as he crawled out of his car and threw his medication at Keith to hold. The taller man mosied up to the car with a certain swagger and grinned smugly at Lance. “Well well well… Look at what the cat dragged in.”

“Dallas!” Lance practically sprinted and threw himself into his older brother’s arms which quickly turned south as Dallas put Lance in a headlock and nuggied him. Lance started clawing to get away from his brother’s grip. “Long time no see, huh, little bro!” Keith stepped out of the car clearly puzzled and also slightly concerned at the scene. Dallas looked up from his brother to Keith and smiled. “Oh, and who is this, Lance?”

Keith pointed at himself and looked behind him, still a little lost. “M-me? Well, um, I- Oh. Okay you guys are wrestling on the ground now. In the dirt. Alright.”

Lance had managed to drag his brother down with him and there was a lot of flailing of limbs until Dallas managed to get Lance locked and pulled back one of his arms into a very uncomfortable position. As in a painful position, to put it more accurately. “Ow ow ow owowow! Fuck, I give! I give!”

Dallas pulled on Lance’s arm a little more. “What else do we say?”

“You’re the best most amazing brother in the world, I love you more than any of my other siblings and god for the love of fuck please let go-” Dallas released Lance’s arm and stood up. He gave himself a quick pat down to get off dirt as Lance got up lazily next to him. “I don’t know why I was excited to see you again.” Lance groaned out.

“Don’t be rude, Lance. Now who’s this? Don’t tell me you managed to make a friend other than Hunk for once.” Lance gave his brother a death glare. “I’ll have you know that I only have family, Hunk and then dating material and nothing else.” Dallas gave a shit eating grin.

“So this is dating material.” He gestured towards Keith and Lance froze up feeling heat rise. Was it from embarrassment or anger? He couldn’t tell anymore. “No. Nope. No no nono. I am not playing this game with you. This is Keith, he lives next door with Shiro and he is here purely to return mama’s pan.”

Keith was sporting a red glint across his cheeks as well and had a death grip on the pan and medication in his hands. “Nice to meet you.” He said very stiffly.

“It’s nice to meet you too. Obviously, I’m Dallas, the superior and more handsome older McClain brother.” Dallas looked between the two for a moment before continuing. “Hey, you know dad is making his famous grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch right now. Why don’t you join us?”

“Um. I don’t think I could possibly-” Dallas came up beside Keith and wrapped an arm around his shoulders smiling ear to ear. “Oh nonsense! You live next door and that practically makes you family! Besides you’re already here, I won’t take no for an answer.” He started leading Keith to the porch steps and looked back at Lance and winked at him. 

“Great. First he steals my fake uncle Shiro’s love and now he’s going to steal my grilled cheese sandwiches too.” Lance rubbed his temples slowly. “I’m gonna die.”


	4. Smothered Bowling

A lot of things in Keith’s life he could see the build up towards whatever it was that was bound to happen. In fact, pretty much everything in Keith’s life was a build up to a certain event or moment that he saw coming but still managed to hit him hard like a wave in the ocean and sweep him away. He could feel himself being pulled in by the tide but this time was different.

It took half a minute for Keith to decide Lance was probably the most handsome man he’d ever seen in his life, five minutes for him to hate Lance, a key lime pie to decide ‘eh, he’s not so bad’, a car drive to realize that he was a complete clutz and almost three full days to be thrown into this handsome stranger’s home with his equally as handsome brother, mother, father and younger siblings. This time around, it was as if he was in the middle of a desert and got smashed by a wave. It didn’t make any logical sense but he sure as hell couldn’t deny it was happening.

When Keith negotiated with Shiro to stay with him on his farmland for a while he had been warned about the McClain family, especially Lance. Keith had asked Shiro what he meant by his warnings of the next door neighbors and the best he got out of the other man was, “They have so much love that they might accidentally smother you in it.” Keith winced at the thought. The most genuine love he could remember receiving in his life was hugs he got from Shiro and that one time a stray dog randomly decided to follow him around his neighborhood for a month. To Keith, the idea of being smothered in love sounded terrifying. He knew Shiro intended it to sound like when you put on clothes fresh out of the dryer, all toasty and warm, but it ended up sounding like being force fed brussel sprouts.

With these expectations in mind, when he met Lance those same expectations shifted. He had imagined this big warm and fuzzy go lucky guy to waltz onto the farm but instead he got… This tall, lanky and ecstatic guy who looked like the gods personally kissed every inch of his skin. The way Lance acted did make Keith feel smothered but definitely not with love. Later on the same night, Shiro explained to him that Lance didn’t normally have an attitude like that but it was indeed how he acted. When Lance showed up later the next day with pie and two of the most adorable younger siblings and a dog, Keith started to understand at least the ‘smother’ part of McClain’s. From what he could see among all three blood relatives, they all did things to full extents. Lance wanted to apologize? He went out and got some of the best pie Keith had ever tasted and properly apologized. His siblings missed their uncle Shiro? They ran circles around him and clung on to every limb and talked non stop. They needed to leave? They left in a dramatic hurry.

‘Weird. They’re weird people.’ Keith left it at that until dinner time came. Shiro heated up the casserole that Lance had given them when they had first met and that’s when Keith fully understood the ‘smothered’ attributes to the family. Sure, people had ‘cooked’ him things before but no one had ever actually cooked him something before. Now that he was tasting it, he completely understood. It could have been the worst casserole Keith had ever eaten but he would still have been able to taste the emotion and work put into it and good news, it was the opposite of the worst casserole Keith had ever tasted before. Also good news, Keith didn’t feel so scared about being smothered now. He could only imagine coming home every night to a warm smile and home cooked meal waiting for him that spoke their love for him clearly. Obviously Mrs. McClain wasn’t trying to proclaim her love for Shiro or anything but rather she was trying to say, ‘Take care of yourselves.’ and it made Keith feel a little safer knowing that, even though they were strangers, someone was looking out for him.

As for the ‘love’ part, that’s what he was still trying to wrap his head around. Especially as he saw Lance and Dallas wrestle each other aggressively on the ground and even more so as he sat at their dinner table eating grilled cheese sandwiches with everybody. The dynamic of the family had it’s own quirkiness to it. Keith couldn’t tell if this was a normal way for a family to function or not. He had been on his own for so long that maybe he was the weird one in this situation. Keith blinked himself out of thought and began only half paying attention to whatever Lance was animatedly talking about.

When Keith first met Mrs. McClain (‘Please, just call me Sofia!’), he almost thought that she was one of Lance’s siblings for a minute. She was tall and skinny like her children with a skin complexion that made dermatologists cry heavenly tears, not to mention the dark eyes with hints of blue and grey in them. She threw so many compliments at him that he couldn’t count them all on both hands. He heard Lance groaning before Carolyn and Brady had found Keith and attacked his legs. He met Mr. McClain last who didn’t have a lot to say besides a firm handshake and simple greeting as he cooked. They all eventually found themselves at the table with food on their plates, having a nice lunch together.

Dallas and Lance talk. A lot. They were in a constant competition to see who could talk over the other and get the most attention from everybody. Meeting Lance’s family made Keith understand a lot more about the other boy. He talked so much because he constantly felt like he needed to, not just because he wanted to. Keith only knew so much about ADHD but he knew it could make you very active or very slow and not always there from time to time, and he could empathize with that. In all honesty, knowing someone was on medication for something always made Keith feel a little bit safer and normal around them. He didn’t feel like he was the only one-

“Right, Keith? Keith. Keeeeith. Hello, ground control to major Keith?”

Keith looked over at Lance, dazed. “Huh? What?”

“Please tell everyone that we did, in fact, hit a rabbit on the way here and resurrect it back to life. Everyone refuses to believe that I’m the next messiah”

“… You mean before or after you screamed in the highest octave possible and fell down?” Contained snickers erupted across the table and Lance’s expression dropped. It was quickly replaced with an irritated look.

“You know what,” Lance started.

“I thought we were friends, Keith. True best bros for life. Paloronis to the end. I guess I was wrong about you after all.”

“Wait, we’re friends?”

“Were.”

“Really? I thought you said he was dating material.” Now laughs and shrieks were coming from everyone at the table. Keith felt panic and anxiety pool in his gut. Did they know? Did they know he was-

“Ha! You think you’re so smart, Dallas. I don’t have to take shit from the guy who forgot to tell his whole family he had gotten engaged!” Sofia gasped. “Language!” Lance mumbled his apologies. Keith nodded over towards Dallas.

“Wait… You forgot to tell your family you had gotten engaged? Isn’t that kind of a big deal…?”

“Apparently not to Dallas…” Lance mumbled. Sofia giggled and pointed at her eldest son.

“The best part is that he had called me and was asking about what kind of flower arrangements I had used for our wedding. I asked him why he was asking and he said, ‘For my wedding, did you forget, mama?’ and that’s when I lost it.” Dallas was hiding behind his hands.

“When will you all let me live?”

“Never. Your wedding is canceled. Now we gotta plan your funeral.” Sofia reached across the table to slap Lance. “Ow! Ma!” 

“You haven’t seen your brother since Christmas! Be a little nicer.”

Lance pointed at Dallas clearly confused and wearing a ‘I am personally being attacked right now’ expression. “But he-”

“No buts.”

Carolyn and Brady giggled and whispered ‘butts’ in unison while Dallas waited for their mother to look away before winking and wearing a winning grin. Keith could feel Lance fuming beside him. They were starting to finish up their lunch when suddenly Lance got a call and looked at his phone.

“Oh, sorry. I gotta take this. Excuse me.”

Lance got up from the table and walked out the front door and out of view. Conversation between family members continued and Dallas leaned forward on his elbows in Keith’s direction.

“So, how do you like the countryside so far?” Keith looked up from the cup he hadn’t realized he was staring at. “Oh, it’s nice I guess. I like the atmosphere. I haven’t gotten to look around much since I’ve been mainly helping Shiro out with his farming.”

Dallas gave an ‘aah’ before continuing his interrogation of Keith.

“It amazes me how much Shiro gets done on his own. Lance used to go there nearly everyday, even on school days. I’m sure it was to get some peace and quiet though. Especially when me and Maddy still lived here together. Talk about loud.” He chuckled. “Speaking of Lance, how are you getting along? I know you just met so it must be pretty rough.”

“I’m getting along with him as much as any living human being can be.” Keith added an eye roll for emphasis. This gave Dallas a good laugh.

“Sounds about right. In all seriousness though, I know he can be a handful but take care of him. Knowing him, he’s going to try and push all your buttons, but he’s more than that one playful funny flirty guy. A lot of people have a hard time getting past that.” Dallas gave Keith a warm smile that he couldn’t find himself saying no to.

“Huh… Thanks for the tip I guess.” Keith glanced over at the clock on the wall.

“Ah, I should uh… Head back soon. Shiro is probably wondering what is taking so long.” Dallas waved him off.

“No worries. Shiro is a capable man, but if you gotta go it ain’t a big deal. Make Lance give you a ride back, it’s too hot outside to walk.” Keith nodded then looked down at his plate and started to panick on what to do with them. Dallas must have seen his face because he picked up Keith’s dishes and got up.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of those. Hey everyone! Say goodbye to Keith, he’s heading out!” 

The table stopped their side conversations and looked over. Sofia gave a heart melting smile at Keith.

“Don’t hesitate to come back, alright? Next time bring Shiro! He owes us so many dinner nights it’s not even funny.” Carolyn and Brady jumped from the chairs and came around to give hugs to Keith. He didn’t know what to do in return so he just.. Carefully patted their heads.

“Thank you for having me. I’ll make sure to tell Shiro.” Sofia and Carlos nodded in agreement and waved as he left the room. He opened the front door (and no, the screen door didn’t confuse him at all. Nope.) and peeked around looking for Lance.

“No- Pidge! Listen to me-” Lance looked very frantic on the phone. Who could he possibly be talking to that got under his skin more than Dallas did? 

“If you make kissy noises one more time I’m going to hang up on you. Why the hell did you tell Hunk about him?” Lance went quiet as he listened then sighed. “Why did I ever introduce you two. Why did I think that was a good idea- Oh. There it is. More kissy noises. I’m hanging up.”

Lance pulled the phone away from his face but stopped himself. He pulled it up to his ear again and yelled, “I love you! Bye!” Then he officially ended the call and huffed in exasperation. 

“Who was that?”

“Holy shit!” Lance jumped out of his skin and his phone flew out of his hands. They both stared at each other as they heard a clatter on the ground then looked down at the phone in unison. Lance scrambled to pick it up from the ground and checked to see if there were any cracks on the screen. “Oh thank god…” He mumbled.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.” Lance gave a very doubtful look. Keith shrugged. “I really didn’t, as satisfying as it was to watch.”

“Whatever. Did you need something? Or are they asking for me to come back inside.” Keith shook his head. 

“No, it’s just been a while so I need to head back to Shiro’s soon. Dallas-” Lance immediately perked up. 

“Let me give you a ride then!” Oh. He didn’t have to be told to do it. Keith smiled softly at Lance.

“Yeah, that’d be nice.”

— 

“…And that’s how Maddy, Dallas and I all got kicked out and ruined the 8th grade middle school dance. I was the coolest 6th grader for the rest of the year. Also they never let us have jello in school again which kind of sucked but it was worth it.”

Keith was staring at Lance with completely furrowed eyebrows. “How are you still alive? This is a serious question. I don’t understand.” Lance shrugged as he pulled into Shiro’s driveway.

“I guess I’m just too handsome to die.” Keith scoffed. Well, Lance wasn’t wrong about the handsome part.

“Well here we are. Dad is gonna be so proud, you met the rest of the family.”

“Don’t call him dad, it’s weird.”

“Okay but he is a total dad. Don’t deny it.” Lance cocked his head at Keith and raised his eyebrows and waited for an answer. Keith sighed.

“Damn. Can’t argue with that.” Lance laughed and unlocked the car doors for Keith to get out. Before Keith could leave, Lance carefully grabbed his arm.

“My mom was serious, you know. You and Shiro need to stop by more often. I’m pretty sure she’s this close to getting an ulcer worrying over you two.” Keith nodded and stepped out of the car and leaned in through the rolled down window.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure Shiro will find some excuse to drag me out of this farm no matter how silly it is.” Lance smiled at him but not like he usually did. It was a more content expression than smug this time around. It was enough to make Keith freeze for a nano second.

“Well I’ll see you later, I guess.”

Lance’s smugness was back in a flash and he blasted the radio once again. “No one can get Lance McClain out of their hair for good! Peace!”

Keith leaned back from the car and watched as Lance took off with loud pop music trailing behind. He turned around to look out at the fields and find Shiro but had no such luck. Deciding he might be inside he headed up the porch steps. Closing the door quietly behind him, Keith headed to the kitchen to get some water. He was pretty sure he sweat away all the water in his body just from being outside for less than a minute. He stopped in his tracks at the doorway when he saw Shiro sitting at the table with a book in hand and his reading glasses on. Hearing Keith, Shiro looked up from his book and smiled as he set it down.

“Have fun?”

Keith immediately rolled his eyes and headed towards the fridge. “I’m not trying to be coy, Keith. I actually want to know if you had fun or not.”

“I know! I know… I just. It’s a little tiring at times, is all. And yes, I did have fun. Happy now?” He glanced over at Shiro who was giving a satisfied nod.

“Very. I’m just worried about you. I know that you’re recovering right now but staying on this farm all day every day won’t do you any good. You need to go out, make connections, experience new things for yourself. It would be helpful for you, Keith.”

Keith turned around as he grabbed a water bottle from the fridge, uncapping it. “My god, Lance really was right. You are a dad.” Shiro chuckled and picked his book up again.

“I see he’s starting to rub off on you then.”

“Ugh. More like give me carpet burn with every sentence that comes out of his mouth.”

“Ooh. Your comebacks are getting even more wittier like his too.”

Keith glared at Shiro as he downed the rest of his water.

 

—

A few days of peace and quiet roll by before any signs of a McClain show up at Shiro’s farm again. Shiro and Keith spent this time doing twice the amount of work to get ahead of schedule on the crops and they could spend more time relaxing later. A blessing and a curse about growing crops, Keith realized, is that they take a ton of effort and twice as long to be anything near ready for harvest.

It wasn’t until about midweek that Lance popped up unexpectedly again. It was around sundown, Shiro and Keith were working in the fields when they heard the sound of wheels on gravel and the blaring of some awful pop music. Shiro had noticed first and had to tap Keith’s shoulder to get his attention at the approaching car.

“Oh boy…” Keith muttered under his breath as they approached the incoming car. It was obviously Lance and another person in the front seat he’d never seen before. Lance finally slowed down to a stop beside both of them and leaned out his window sporting aviators and an awful snapback pulled on backwards.

“Get in losers we’re going bowling.”

“What?” Shiro and Keith spoke at the same time, both clearly confused. They all stared at each other awkwardly for a moment before the larger boy in the passenger’s seat leaned forward and waved.

“Hey Shiro!”

“Lance we can’t just go bowling. Keith and I still have work to do, you really need to plan these things. Also, hey Hunk!” Shiro waved back and smiled at the guy (Hunk? What kind of name was that?) before Lance blocked off their connected eyesight.

“Shiro, you and I both know that you are way ahead of your work. Besides y'all deserve a break! So, come on!” Shiro looked over at Keith looking for some form of approval. Keith shook his head. He was already tired, sweaty and hot. Why the hell would he even want to go bowling?

“Alright. We’ll come.”

“Shiro, what?!” Keith looked at him clearly rubbed the wrong way. Did he not just shake his head no? Did he not? Shiro simply shrugged at him.

“He is right, we are ahead on our work. It couldn’t hurt to have a night out.” Keith sighed in acceptance and moved forward to get in the backseat of the car. He was stopped by Lance locking the car doors.

“What the hell? No, you literally look and smell like a rat that died and came back to life half decomposed. You both need to go shower and change or something.” Hunk laughed a little bit beside Lance before trying to make a serious face and clearing his throat.

“I mean- that was very rude, Lance.” Keith could only assume that Lance had just rolled his eyes behind those douchebag sunglasses of his.

“Whatever, it’s true. We’ll wait out here until you guys are ready. Then, we bowl boys.”

—

Fast forward about 40 minutes to Shiro and Keith getting in the car, they were shocked to find a girl sitting in the backseat as well. How had they missed her?

“Oh! Hello! Sorry, I didn’t see you earlier. My name is Shiro, nice to meet you!” As Shiro slid into the middle backseat he extended his hand out for her to shake. She took it gladly.

“I’m Shay! I’m a friend of Hunk’s and Lance’s. I’ll be staying with Hunk and his family for the summer.” Shiro immediately looked over at Hunk.

“That’s great! I had no idea you were going to bring someone along, I might have dressed nicer.” Shiro gestured at his body that was just a black t-shirt, flannel and jeans.

“Please, Shiro, you look fine. What I wanna know is what the fuck is Keith wearing?” Lance had decided to chip in his two cents and had turned around almost completely in the driver’s seat to look back at him. Keith looked down at himself and then back up at Lance. He had no idea what could be wrong?

“Dude, you’re literally wearing a leather jacket. In over 100 degree heat. Like what the fuck? How is that even possible?” Keith tugged at his leather jacket. Sure it was hot but… He loved this jacket. It was one of those items of clothing he wore religiously no matter the weather or event. He looked back up at Lance.

“Well at least I don’t look like a prepubescent 12 year old middle school boy who wears axe and thinks that’ll get him all the ladies.” Keith dead panned. Lance’s mouth dropped.

“Oooh, that’s it. I’m gonna kick your ass!”

“Lance!” Shiro warned.

“At bowling!”

“If you don’t start driving we won’t even be able to bowl because they’ll be closed at the rate we’re going at.” Hunk complained to Lance and then they were off. Lance had turned his music back up and shockingly it wasn’t half bad. The vocals in the music were beautiful, almost serene. Whoever was singing made sure to put their emotions into it.

“Who’s singing this?”

Everyone in the car stopped and stared at him before Hunk muttered to Lance to keep his eyes on the road. Even Shiro looked phased by what he had said.

“You… Really don’t know?” Shiro leaned in a little bit in all seriousness.

“No. That’s why I asked.”

“How do you not know who Beyoncé is?!” Keith was pretty sure that Lance just broke the sound barrier and everyone agreed in low groans. Keith shook his head.

“Not really no… Why? Should I?”

“This is the most unacceptable behavior I have ever seen in a child. Shiro you have been a terrible father, how could you have let this happen to him? No wonder we don’t get along. He doesn’t even know who Beyoncé is!” Shiro ignored Lance as he stared straight ahead at the road.

“I’m not his father therefore it’s not my responsibility to show him who Beyoncé is.”

“Also I don’t think you get along with anyone, Lance.” Keith commented. Lance scoffed and pointed at Hunk.

“I beg to differ. Me and Hunk get along just fine.”

“Hunk gets along with everyone unlike you so I doubt it counts.” Shiro piped in as well. Lance was fuming.

“Aw come on guys. Give him a break, he tries.”

“That’s it. No more talking. Only Beyoncé. Keith listen closely and be educated.” Lance turned up the radio and nobody had any complaints about not talking for the rest of the ride. By the time they had made it into town they had gotten through most of Lemonade and Keith couldn’t lie. He was impressed.

When they were pulling into the parking lot of the bowling alley it turns out it was a combination arcade as well. Sort of like Main Event, but a much more vintage look to it. There were lots of neon colors now faded to pastel painted on the walls and an elaborate neon sign decorated the front. It made the building very hard to miss.

Lance finally shut off the radio and everyone climbed out of the car together. They all got inside and had their shoes fitted and Lance payed for a lane. ‘I dragged everyone out here, I’ll pay’ and it only took a few moments for him to shut down Shiro and Hunk who wanted to at least split it. When they got to their lane, Lance took charge and was asking everyone what they wanted their names to be.

Hunk decided on 'scrub lord' and Shay on 'rock lady'. Shiro wanted just his normal name but Lance wasn’t having any of that so he put him down as 'hot dad'. Keith insisted on being called 'red', after his favorite color, but once again Lance went against his option and put him in as 'mullet'.

“It’s not even an actual mullet it’s just grown out.”

“Shut up, mullet.”

Finally, Lance put himself in as 'cool bro; and they were ready to start the game. They were all choosing their favorite color bowling balls to use from the rack when Keith saw a figure of white in the corner of his eye approaching Lance at the computer.

“Excuse me, do you know how to use this thing?”

“Oh yeah, I do-”

Lance froze completely when he saw the woman in front of him. Keith noticed her voice as foreign almost immediately and also took note on the dark skin. She had incredibly long and flowing bleach white hair that almost hurt to look at. Lance was gradually turning more and more red and Keith felt Hunk walk up next to him.

“Oh boy…” Hunk whispered. “You’re about to see Lance in his most natural habitat.”

“Where?”

“Around girls.”

On cue, Lance straightened his body out and leaned towards the woman a little bit more. “I certainly know how to control one of these ‘things’…”

It shocked Keith at first. Lance’s voice had dropped an octave and gotten all husky and… Hot. It threw Keith for a loop. It was undeniable that Lance was attractive but dear lord- If he had spoken to Keith like that the first time they met, Keith wouldn’t have stood a chance.

She clapped her hands together and her face brightened with excitement. She was completely oblivious to what was happening.

“Is anybody going to stop him?”

Hunk nodded. “Oh, just give it a bit. He doesn’t need to be stopped. This event will stop itself before it gets very far.”

Keith and Hunk both watched as Lance followed the woman over to the next lane as she babbled on in her accented voice about 'oh, we don’t have bowling where I come from-’ and soon enough Shiro and Shay were standing with him and Hunk as well.

“Is he doing it again?” Shiro asked.

“Doing what?” Shay looked as lost as Keith did.

“Oooh that’s right you haven’t seen it yet either. See, Lance is the biggest flirt in the universe when it comes to woman. Sometimes men but I don’t think he realizes it. Basically he says the most corniest lines in the whole universe and eventually either gets shot down or punched down. Depends on how far he gets.” 'Sometimes men’ rang in Keith’s head like a bell. He waited to hear somebody say something about it, but nothing ever came. They all just watched Lance try and flirt with this woman. Did they really not care?

“Oh look! Dad figure at 9 o'clock!” Hunk pointed to the side as a tall and bulky man with ginger hair and a god awful mustache walked into view. He was headed straight towards the two conversing by the lane computer.

“Ah! Allura!” Both of them turned around in surprise at the voice. He had an accent like the white haired girl but it was a lot more absurd sounding. Lance looked frozen again and his voice went back up an octave.

“Is this… Is he… Your father?”

“Hahaha! Oh gods no! This is Coran and I’m Allura. He isn’t my father but he might as well be family to me. He’s always with me, in fact we’re on vacation here together if you haven’t noticed.” Lance was just a solid statue by this point.

“Whoop, there it is.” Hunk whispered to the group and giggles started rising up from everyone. Lance finally started making connections in his head visibly with awkward hand gestures.

“Yooouu.. Aah.. Uh.. Okay.”

“Are you alright?”

“Pshh yeah. Totally. Anyways, you wanted to learn how to use the lane, right?”

Allura nodded and Coran gasped. “You’re helping us with the doohickey? What a nice gentleman!” Finally, loud laughter that couldn’t be contained from the group anymore filled the air and the two foreigners whipped their heads in the direction the noise was coming from.

“Oooh!” Allura exclaimed. “Are those your friends over there?”

Lance had his face buried in the computer screen for the lane, his face as red as a tomato.

“Nope. Don’t know them at all. No idea who they are.” The group was moving closer now.

“Are you sure? Because it sure seems like-”

“Ooh Laaaance!” Hunk said in a sing song voice. Lance whipped around with a wild expression.

“What?!”

“Havin’ fun?” Hunk smiled widely at his friend and Lance was beyond frustrated.

“Hunk… I swear to god…”

“So these are your friends? How wonderful! It’s nice to meet you, I’m Allura.”

Lance returned to staring blankly at the computer screen and the rest of the group began introductions.

“Hello! I’m Shiro, supposed caretaker of these rascals.”

“I’m Shay! It’s lovely to meet you.”

“And I’m Hunk.”

“Keith.” He said indifferently while pointing at himself. Allura gazed at the four of them happily as she continued to talk with them.

“See, me and Coran here are on vacation here from-”

“Oh! We heard don’t worry. What brings you guys to this dead end town anyways? There’s literally nothing of interest here.” Hunk interjected and questioned the woman.

“Well, we heard this place had some of the finest experiences to offer. So naturally we had to come.” Coran answered for her and she nodded in agreement.

“And it is absolutely lovely here.”

“Well since there is only two of you, would you like to bowl with us? It’s more fun of a game in large groups than small.” Shiro offered to them both with a smile. Keith could hear Lance groan behind them but nobody seemed to notice or care.

 

“That sounds splendid!”

Lance smashed his face lightly onto the computer board.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took me way longer to finish this than I wanted to but a lot has been goin down so (shrugs)
> 
> But here we are, here we go. I decided to change up the perspective? I don't know if you'll like it or not but it's worth a try :^0
> 
> Also for anyone wondering my tumblr is @opppossum B^)


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